Professor Gonzalo Varela: be a doctor first and then a surgeon

In the Third Shenzhen International Forum of Thoracic Surgery, we had the great honor to invite 2016 President of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS)—Prof. Varela (Figure 1) to share with our readers his perspective on the training of thoracic surgeon.

Figure 1 Snapshot of Prof. Gonzalo Varela.

Graduating from University of Navarra and Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain, Prof. Gonzalo Varela is presently the Chief of the Thoracic Surgery Service and Professor of Thoracic Surgery in Salamanca University Hospital and Medical School, Salamanca, Spain. Elected as the 2016 President of the ESTS, Prof. Varela also takes commitments in many other national and international professional organizations, like being the Programme Committee in the European Conference on General Thoracic Surgery, vice president of the National Committee for Thoracic Surgery, and so on. Being the Associate Editor of European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Prof. Varela is also active in contributing high-quality papers in his field.

Prof. Varela’s main clinical focus is on thoracic surgery. In his surgical practice, Prof. Varela puts much attention to the surgery quality and patient safety. During the interview, he also mentioned many times about the importance of focusing on patient safety (Figure 2).